President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to empower his running mate Mike Pence to steer the presidential transition gives the soon-to-be vice president a powerful hand in shaping the incoming government and could foreshadow that he will play an outsized role in the White House.

Pence’s ascension is in line with a recent trend toward influential vice presidents and appears similar to the last vice president who was handed the keys to a presidential transition: Dick Cheney.

…It also gives the vice president a chance to put his own stamp on the administration. While Trump ran as a political outsider and was not shy in burning bridges to establishment Washington, Pence is a popular GOP figure who may opt to select longtime allies for key roles.

“Those who get new jobs may feel beholden to the vice president and feel responsive to him,” said Goldstein. “It’s a way of guaranteeing a degree of loyalty.”

Key social conservatives are already filling key roles in Trump’s transition team. Family Research Council’s Kenneth Blackwell is in charge of the team’s Domestic Policy. Pence, as governor of Indiana, oversaw that state’s passage of its right-to-discriminate law, the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act, in 2015. The law’s intent of allowing discrimination against gay people was so obvious that even Pence was unable to explain how discrimination wasn’t really discrimination.

A disturbing pattern of assaults, vandalism and other threats has emerged following Donald Trump’s victory after a vicious campaign plagued by the candidate’s xenophobic, Islamophobic and racist comments. Alt-right web sites are encouraging attacks like some of the ones being reported. According to Newsweek:

The Daily Stormer’s home page features this image.

The Daily Stormer, a Neo-Nazi website, published a list of dozens of Twitter users who expressed sadness over the election outcome on Wednesday, urging its readers to target and harass them to the point of suicide.

The frontpage of the white supremacist website shows a large photo of President-elect Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, meeting with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. “You should probably go ahead and be afraid now,” writes Andrew Anglin, the website’s publisher. The post suggests it’s readers “can troll these people and definitely get some of them to kill themselves.”

This is an excerpt from the end of the post:

You can troll these people and definitely get some of them to kill themselves.

Just be like “it’s the only way you can prove to the racists that Hillary was right all along.”

“Mass Suicides After Trump Victory” would be a headline the media would play up, but all it would do would demoralize the left even further.

Villanova University’s Department of Public Safety is investigating a reported incident in which a black female student was assaulted by white males as they ran toward her yelling, “Trump, Trump, Trump!”

According to a university source with knowledge of the event, it occurred Thursday night as the female student, who has not been identified, was walking through a SEPTA tunnel on campus.

There, she encountered multiple white males who allegedly ran toward her, shouting the name of the new president-elect. One male forcefully knocked her to the ground, causing her to hit her head, the source said.

…yet another vandal has maliciously damaged property in South Philadelphia, this time the car of a research psychologist at Drexel University.

On Friday night, at 18th and Reed Streets, Adrienne Juarascio discovered the following message carved into the passenger side of her parked Toyota Camry: “It’s our p—- now, B—h.”

…I’m not sure [why I was targeted],” Juarascio told PhillyVoice on Saturday morning, a few hours after she reported the incident to Philadelphia police. “I am a big HIllary supporter and had signs at my house. Maybe somebody saw me get out of my car going home.”

Several incidents in and around the University of Pennsylvania’s campus, including a video of people shouting “Build a Wall” and black students being added to a racist GroupMe called “N***** Lynching,” left many on the West Philadelphia campus visibly shaken Friday afternoon.

The disturbing events began with a video circulating on social media that shows people, who cannot be confirmed as Penn students, chanting “build the wall” as election results poured in early Wednesday morning. The scene unfolded at Smokey Joe’s, a popular bar adjacent to the school’s University City campus that dubs itself “a standby for UPenn students since 1933.”

…Calvary Rogers, a sophomore at Penn and the vice president of external affairs for the class of 2019, told PhillyVoice there’s implicit racism at the school that’s been fueled by this past presidential election. Though, he was completely shocked when he found out Friday that most of the the black members of the freshman class had been added to a GroupMe that he said was called “N***** Lynching,” a story originally reported by the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian.

GroupMe is a mobile messaging app that makes it easy to talk to large groups of people. Members are added to GroupMe messages by using a name, phone number or email address. Rogers, who’s actively involved on campus, said he’s not even sure how to get access to that information.

Similars groups called “Mud Med” and “Trump is Love” were also created along with an event called “Daily Lynching.”

…In a statement, University of Pennsylvania spokesperson said the GroupMe originated in Oklahoma and the situation was being investigated… This was later confirmed by University of Oklahoma President David Boren, who announced the temporary suspension of a student following a joint investigation by Penn Police and the FBI.

And a threatening note at Bay City, Michigan:

Kris Harris and Neil Wolicki on Thursday, Nov. 10, said they found a handwritten note in their mailbox that read: “Faggots Get Out! Trump Country!” The “O” of “Out” contained a backward swastika.

“We’re very saddened by this and hope it’s not going to become a trend, whether against gays, Muslims, or any other community and/or religious group,” Harris told MLive in a text message. He declined to further comment or be photographed for this story.

…Bay City Public Safety Director Michael J. Cecchini said the note was reported to Bay County Central Dispatch Thursday afternoon.

In the first incident, two men who were identified as Babson College students by school authorities drove through Wellesley College in a pickup Wednesday while waving a Trump flag, and uttered words and enagaged in actions that were “racially offensive and gender demeaning,” Babson officials said Thursday.

Wellesley student Sydney Robertson posted details to facebook, including a celebratory video posted to social media by the two students, identified as Parker Rand-Ricciardi and Edward Tomasso, both of Babson College

Rand-Ricciardi and Tomasso have both been expelled from Sigma Phil Epsilon, and the college says they face disciplinary action. Edward Tomasso has posted a lengthy apology.

Second page of the flyer. Click the image to enlarge. You can also see an image of the flyer’s third page here.

A flyer is circulating around Texas State University at San Marcos calling for tar-and-feather vigilante squads to “arrest and torture those deviant university leaders spouting off all this Diversity Garbage.” According to Austin’s KXAN:

The next page of the flyer begins with “Diversity?” The writer calls for predators, like snakes and piranhas, to be placed in the Rio Grande River to stop illegal immigrants. The message goes on to say “why not re-purpose our nuclear site radiation trash into the Mexican facing side of the wall to at least sterilize all those who try to dig under or climb over.”

Students are asked in the flyer to clog school toilets to send a message to university leaders. “Here’s what I think of your ‘diversity’ ideology —- overflowing all over your floor,” states the flyer.

The last page delves further into the writer’s problem with diversity claiming it is a code word for “white genocide.” The message concludes saying “diversity is just another way of wanting someone else to give you something you don’t deserve — in this case by the color of your skin you are ‘entitled.’”

University police are investigating. A University spokesperson confirmed to the San Antonio Express that the flyers were ere hung up in “several” campus facilities and have been removed.

TSU president Denise M. Trauth issued a statement calling for “constructive dialogue” to “better understand that which causes divisions among us.”

TSU is located about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Students had been protesting Trump’s election in a free speech zone on campus.

DeWitt resident Corina Gonzalez told the State Journal that Maliah Gonzalez, her seventh-grade daughter, was targeted in the third incident.

“She attempted to get to her locker, and there were some boys blocking the locker,” she said. “And they were chanting things such as ‘Donald Trump for president; let’s build the wall; let’s make America great again; you need to go back to Mexico.'”

Corina Gonzalez said her daughter, who is Mexican-American, was with two or three Latino friends when the incident happened.

Gonzalez says she met with school officials twice on Wednesday to discuss the incident involving her daughter, but is not happy with how the district has handled its investigation.

“You can never take back what’s been done to her. You can’t take back that she’s endured racism at the age of 12,” Gonzalez said.

During the meetings, Gonzalez says school officials confirmed they have identified some of the people who made racist comments to other students, but would not share with her what disciplinary actions have been taken.

Another parent of an Asian-America student reported that her daughter had been told that she should be deported. That parent told MLive that she hadn’t come come forward about her daughter’s experience because she didn’t think the school district would handle the situation properly. DeWitt Public Schools Superintendent John Deiter responded yesterday evening with a statement: “We plan to address them very specifically, and we will also address them broadly to prevent further incidents and to make sure that all of our students feel safe and accepted at school.”

On November 2, the KKK officially endorsed Donald Trump, making its official newspaper one of just a tiny handful of papers to endorse him. The Trump campaign swiftly disavowed the endorsement, after having learned a lessen last February when The Donald demurrred when he was asked about former KKK leader David Duke’s endorsement.

Nevertheless, Trump’s race-bating messages and anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim sentiments have made him the darling of white nationalist groups across the country. And since Trump’s surprise win on Tuesday night, white nationalists have been dizzy with excitement. Duke tweeted, “Donald J. Trump now has the chance to become one of the greatest Americans to have ever lived – we have the moral high ground.” And Andrew Anglin wrote in his neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, “This has been the best year and a half of my life. We have won so much. And it has led to the ultimate win. The battle is far from over. Much, much, much work to be done. But the White race is back in the game. And if we’re playing, no one can beat us..”

And now one Klan website has announced that it will be taking its victory lap to the streets:

Details on the rally celebrating Trump’s victory are scarce. It’s being held by The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is based in Pelham – a small, unincorporated community about 45 minutes north of Burlington, near the Virginia border.

…According to the group’s website, a North Carolina rally will be held Dec. 3. However, the KKK has not yet publicly announced a location or time for the rally.

The website refers to it as a “Victory Klavalkade Klan Parade” and announces in all-caps that “Trump’s race united my people.”

Politico reports that it has obtained an organization chart outlining who’s doing what on Donald Trump’s transition team. According to Politico, Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state and now the so-called Senior Fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council, is the man in charge of charge of Donald Trump’s domestic policy transition team. Blackwell lobbied against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and has described homosexuality as “a compulsion.” He also called it “a lifestyle choice” comparable to kleptomaniacs:

The reality is, again…that I think we make choices all the time. And I think you make good choices and bad choices in terms of lifestyle. Our expectation is that one’s genetic makeup might make one more inclined to be an arsonist or might make one more inclined to be a kleptomaniac. Do I think that they can be changed? Yes

During the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit last September, Mandi Ancalle, the FRC’s general counsel for government affairs bragged about the FRC’s success in shaping the Republican Party’s platform, which has been described as “the Most Anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-Year History.” She also provided the FRC’s agenda for Trump’s first 100 days in office. That agenda includes rolling back President Barack Obama’s LGBT anti-discrimination protection measures, and to reverse U.S. foreign policies calling for the recognition of LGBT rights abroad.

Philadelphia: Pro-Nazi graffiti appeared at several locations around Philadelphia. According to Anti-Defamation League regional director Nancy K. Baron-Baer said an incident at an abandoned storefront was isolated — for now — but CNN says that the words “Trump Rules,” “Trump Rules Black [expletive]” and the letter “T” were also spray-painted on three vehicles and a house.

Assault and car theft:

San Diego: Two men allegedly targeted a Muslim woman, made comments about Trump and Muslims, then grabbed her backpack and stole her car. Read more at NBC San Diego.

San Jose State University: A man yanked the head scarf off of a student — comparable to yanking the dress off of a Catholic nun — and then caused her to choke. Campus officials say they are investigating. Read more at The Mercury News.

Bullying and intimidation:

Students at Royal Oak Middle School in Michigan chanted, “Build the wall! Build the wall!” in the school cafeteria, scaring Mexican-American classmates. The incident was caught on video and shared on Facebook. The school district superintendent said personnel are addressing the incident, but parents say the response is inadequate, according to The Detroit News.

Canisius College: Students posted images of an African-American doll hanged from a dorm curtain rod on social media. College President John J. Hurley said students have been suspended and may be expelled. Read more at the college website.

Redding, Calif.: A student at Shasta High School tweeted a video of himself handing “deportation” letters to classmates of different ethnicities. According to the Redding Record Searchlight, students at another Redding school expressed ethnic slurs and held up offensive signs directed at a predominantly Hispanic boys basketball team earlier this year.

Buzzfeed is keeping a running list of incidents, including unconfirmed reports from social media.

Medium and Quartz have additional roundups of social-media incident claims.

Duke. Coyote. Vato. Sonny. Drill Pipe. Hot Dog Man. Each nickname had a story behind it, and Ricky collected stores like he collected nicknames. Somewhat physically disabled for the past 40 years, most of his stories about himself involved ninja moves or a plot line from a Spaghetti Western. “Ricky!” his mother would exclaim, “You’d climb a tree to tell a lie!” On September 10, he celebrated his 65th birthday. He passed away five days later. He didn’t want a funeral so there wasn’t one. He was just gone and that was that. So long, Vato.

— — —

I remained offline for much of the past three months for several reasons: family stuff, the campaign season was seriously messing with my headspace, I just needed a break.

Also: sometime in late August, my host provider upgraded its version of PHP in an attempt to speed up this web site’s load times. Doing so seemed to fix that problem, but for whatever reason the template that powers the site’s design stopped working correctly, which led to a host of other problems. So during the downtime, I contacted a friend of mine to see about possibly moving the blog to another host server and beginning again with a whole new design. We decided we’d tackle it sometime after the election was over.

But who knew that the country would lose its collective mind and elect the most dangerous, unstable, xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, homophobic and authoritarian ticket in our nation’s history. We are in for a very ugly four years, and the ugliness began almost immediately Tuesday night with right-wing nationalists, now fully legitimized by the incoming administration, crawling out of the woodwork and staking their claim to the mainstream.

So we don’t have time to wait until this precious little web site is all prettied up and restored to full functioning. I’m bringing BTB out of hiatus, and beginning today you are likely to see a couple of new contributors to the blog. The immediate priority is not to look good, but to do the good work of confronting the mess that is now before us.

So that means that the Daily Agendas will remain on hiatus for the next several days while we sort out a new design that should appear perhaps this weekend or sometime next week. Once the new design is up and running with the bugs worked out, then the Daily Agendas will make their reappearance. Along the way, we will fix the Twitter and Facebook integration so you can follow us wherever you are.

We were not good people just now: me, Chris and his older brother, Ricky. We were watching Cheaters: other peoples’ humiliations packaged for our entertainment. We were laughing and we were not ashamed of it because it was good to laugh. Now we’re watching Jubal. I looked it up: Jubal “was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes.” Also: “a steamy Western which stars Glenn Ford as an itinerant cowpoke.” Now, Ricky just dozed a bit, in and out of sleep, the chicken spaghetti laying heavily in his stomach. It was good to see him dozing. It was also good to see him eating. He doesn’t do that much. Small mercies.

Chris and I are in Abilene watching a man who is dying. He doesn’t know it, but he’s teaching me something about grace. He’s not religious, he’s not well read, he’s had a rough life. If you wanted to talk to him about grace, you wouldn’t get very far before he starts telling you about the time he and his buddies in San Angelo skipped school to go all the way to Abilene to see Easy Rider, and then split a six pack for the drive back to San Angelo. (Or some such story. He always has a story.) He didn’t learn grace, he just has it. We argue over who gets the Coke and who gets the water. “Whichever one you want.” “No, Ricky, I bought them: it’s whichever one you want.” See what I mean? He has it. I don’t.

How can someone in so much pain refuse to complain? How can someone suffer for, what? — one year, maybe two, and not say anything? How can someone spin out yet another of his tall tales — he has a million of them; he can’t tell a story without stretching it past its breaking point — and end it with his trademark, “If I’m lying’, I’m dyin’!” — except this time he adds with a sly smile, “well, I am pretty sick” — while sweat drips from his brow? I will remember him as he has lived and as he’s still living now, and that will always be a good thing.

Sorry for this blog going so quiet this week. There’s a lot going on right now in the our household, and it’s only going to get worse now that a family member has entered hospice care. This suspension will likely last at least another week or so. I’ll keep you posted.

This is another one of those anonymous bars that faded into history with barely a trace. The theater was built in 1917 and christened the Strand. In the 1940s, the Strand became the Rio, and then later the Regency until a fire in 2007 devastated the block across the street, putting about twenty businesses out of commission. By then, the Regency was already shuttered and derelict. In 2013, local investors bought the building and renovated it into business spaces and apartments, joining a series of multi-million dollar investments which rejuvenated the entire downtown. The location today houses a brewery/restaurant. Its “About Us” page gives a very brief history of the Regency, but it glosses over at least one of its upper-floor tenants:

The building was initially constructed in 1916 for the Monterey Elks Club that occupied the upper levels, with the Strand Theater and two retail stores on the ground floor. The Elks outgrew the location in 1964 and the upper floors were used by the Monterey Chess Club until 2003. The ground floor theater operation continued from 1916 as the Regency, Rio, and again the Regency Theater until 2005.

45 YEARS AGO: Jack Baker (Mar 10) and Michael McConnell (May 19) first tried to get a marriage license a year earlier in Minneapolis (May 18). They were not only denied their license, but Michael McConnell lost his job at the University of Minnesota when news of their application hit the news. Baker and McConnell sued in state court, but that would potentially keep things tied up for years. The pair came up with an alternate solution. In August of 1971, McConnell legally adopted Baker in an arrangement that would allow them at least some of the benefits of marriage (inheritance, medical decision-making, and even reduced tuition for Baker who a student at U.M.), but they were still denied their ultimate goal.

But there was one other crucial thing they got out of that adoption: Jack Baker had a new legal and gender-neutral name, Pat Lyn McConnell. And with that, they went to the Blue Earth County courthouse in Makato, Minnesota and applied for a marriage license. They got it on August 16, 1971. They asked a Methodist minister to perform the wedding, and he agreed. They even went through the lengthy pre-marital counseling that was required for any couple about to marry in the Methodist Church. But one day before the wedding was to take place, the minister got the jitters and backed out.

With little time left, they turned to a friend, Pastor Roger Lynn, who had volunteered with the couple in Minneapolis’s LGBT community center. Lynn immediately agreed, since the Methodist Church had no rules specifically banning same-sex couples from marrying. “The Methodist church has always taken a strong stand on social issues,” he said. “I expected that the progressive side of the church would support me.” Baker and McConnell arranged for a friend who worked at a local TV station to film the ceremony.

Lynn pronounced the couple “husband and husband,” and the two kissed. From then on, as far as they were concerned, they were legally and really married. Once news of the marriage got out, things got rocky. A retired Baptist minister waged an unsuccessful campaign to get Baker expelled from the University of Minnesota’s Law School, saying that Baker was “unfit to enforce the lawÃ¥ because he is himself an avowed law breaker.” (Gay relationships had been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor in 1967, but those convicted were still liable for up to one year in jail.) Hennepin County Attorney George M. Scott referred Rev. Lynn’s actions to a Grand Jury in early 1972, but the Grand Jury refused to indict him. He was however fired from his job and formally reprimanded by his presiding Bishop.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Baker and McConnell’s challenge to Hennepin County’s original 1970 denial of their marriage license. The Court declined to hear Baker v. Nelson “for want of a substantial federal question.” McConnell and Baker however contend that the license they did get from Blue Earth County was perfectly legal and remained in effect, although the I.R.S. didn’t see it that way. They filed joint returns for 1972 and 1973 with no problems. But in 1974, an I.R.S. official rejected their joint returned, changed their status to single and recalculated their taxes for them. By doing so, it meant that they two weren’t liable for the so-called “marriage penalty” and had overpaid their taxes by $309 (nearly $1,500 in today’s money). The couple refused to accept the refund. Baker told a reporter, “We realize that the legal position we take necessarily requires us to pay about $150 each year in taxes as a married couple over and above what would be expected if we filed as singles. However, we also recognize that privileges and responsibilities go hand in hand. Hence, we accept the good with the bad.”

The two are still together, living a quiet, happily married life in Minneapolis.

By now, the media-driven anti-gay hysteria gripping Miami for the past month (Aug 3, Aug 11, Aug 12, Aug 13 (twice), Aug 14, Aug 15, Aug 16, Aug 26, Aug 31, Sep 1) began taking on a Keystone Kops mentality. On August 26, Miami mayor Abe Aronovitz blasted City Manager E.A. Evans and Police Chief Walter Headley — who were both out of town on vacation — for “coddling homosexuals” in the city, and said that he would give Evans just one week rom the time he returns to “clean out certain pervert nests in Miami proper.” Evans returned on August 31 and met with Aronovitz, promising to “put pervert hangouts out of business by tomorrow.” Tomorrow came yesterday, and Evans was forced to clarify that no, they weren’t going to put anyone out of town that day, but that what he was really going to do was meet with Chief Headley to come up with a plan. Headley, for his part, threw up his hands, saying that he was hamstrung by the law. “We can’t put those places out of business unless someone passes a law that it’s illegal to serve homosexuals,” he told a reporter for The Miami News. His detective, Benjamin Palmer, suggested that maybe there was another way to get rid of all the homosexuals. “Practically all of the homosexuals work in Miami. If people wouldn’t hire them, they’d go away.”

That long review of increasingly comical events brings us to today, because it turns out that while Chief Headly didn’t have a new plan up his sleeve, he could at least put into practice the plan they always had: try another round of pointless police checks at known gay bars. They did exactly that later that evening, and on September 2, City Manager Evans claimed success. As The Miami News reported:

Miami’s many perverts have been chased “underground or out of town,” City Manager E.A. Evans declared today. Evants said his edict to the Police Department to harass bar owners catering to these characters had resulted from their disappearance from downtown streets.

“They have just disappeared,” said Evans. “Extra men have been added to police details and a check reveals only a few customers at bars where the homosexuals gather.”

Evans admitted that giving the city’s gay community a week’s notice through public arguments in the newspapers probably tipped them off to the coming raids, but he promised that the patrols weren’t “just for a few days. This is a long range proposition.” Neighboring Miami Beach’s Police Chief Romeo Shepard, who had long taken a much harder line on gay bars and the beaches, reacted to his larger neighbor’s crackdown. “We don’t want Miami’s homosexuals running over here. We’re making special plans to keep them out.”

Miami’s crackdown continued that night, but the results were paltry. The following day, The Miami News reported that four bartenders were arrested for liquor law violations — two for serving minors, one for “serving a drunk,” and one for having a “noisy juke box” — along with a 20-year-old Marine who as found drunk and turned over to military authorities and another man arrested at Bayfront Park. Meanwhile, police complained that they didn’t have enough laws to keep gay people in check. Chief Headley repeated his call for a new law “forbidding them to congregate or buy drinks.” But they did claim success in one area. Police told The News that “the notorious Moulin Rouge bar, formerly the Singing Bar, was closed down some time ago, and its new operators reportedly plan to reopen the place for ‘normal’ trade.” Other bars cited that night included the Champagne Girl (559 W. Flagler Street, for having a “noisy juke box”), Samba Bar (249 N.E. First Street, for “serving a drunk”) and Vic’s Bar and Restaurant (39 N.E. Second Street, for serving a minor).

In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.

When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.

Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!

Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.

Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.

Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.

The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.